


Borderline Genius

by Catchclaw



Series: Mental Mimosa [224]
Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Crushes, Everyone Thinks They're Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-13 21:58:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17496137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catchclaw/pseuds/Catchclaw
Summary: Their coworkers think they're fucking like rabbits. They're not. They'resonot.





	Borderline Genius

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Our friends/coworkers are betting on us. Prompt from this [generator](http://bleep0bleep.tumblr.com/prompts).

“They are not,” Loki said, leaning incredulous over his flat white. “They are _not_.”

Thor looked smug. But then, that didn’t tell him much; Thor always looked smug, like he’d just glanced down at the hand life had dealt him and seen four aces staring back. “They are. Apparently the pool’s up to $500.”

“500--!”

“Yep.”

“Where the hell would the idiots we work with get that kind of money?”

“Well, no one person’s put that much in. The pool is an accumulation of--”

Loki gritted his teeth. “I understand how gambling works, thank you ever so much.”

Thor smiled, the ridiculously broad one that made him look he was selling toothpaste. “So then,” he said, “you understand that no one person’s kicked that much in in one go. But if lots of people chuck in a smaller amount, you get the same result.”

“Is there anyone on the floor who hasn’t put in? Anyone? Please tell me there’s one.” A light bulb went on, a bright beacon of hope. “Like Rogers. There’s no way he'd stoop to some childish bullshit like this."

Thor picked up his caramel latte. Raised his eyebrows.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.  _Rogers_ put money on this?!”

“Mmm,” Thor said. “And his $50 bucks says we’re fucking like rabbits.”

Loki wanted to bang his head on the tiny Starbucks table. He wanted to punch Thor. He wanted to sink through the fucking floor.

“Which explains why he hasn’t asked you out, huh?” Thor laughed and leaned over, whispered theatrical: “He thinks you’re already taken.”

“Ugh,” Loki said, ugly. “I hate everything.”

*****

They plodded back to the office--well, Loki plodded; Thor practically skipped--and Loki, not for the first time, cursed his life, the universe, and damn well everything.

Six months ago, working with his best friend--best as in only, best as in oldest, best as in incredibly tolerating--had seemed like a borderline genius move. After years of drifting aimlessly from one drone job to another, of coming up very nearly short on the rent, Thor had gotten tired of his bullshit and made him apply for a copywriter job at the firm Thor had worked for for ages.

“Five years isn’t ages,” Thor had said, watching Loki pick his way, scowling, through the online application. “It’s called building a career. You should try it.”

“Fuck you.”

Thor had laughed and ruffled his hair. “Shut up and keep typing.”

They’d called a few days later and asked him to come in. Thor had loaned him a tie.

“I’m not wearing a goddamn tie to work everyday.”

Thor snorted, his hands working the last turn of the knot, his fingers brushing Loki’s throat.  “You haven’t got the job yet, Lo. Good impression first, fashion statement later, all right?”

He’d sweated straight through the interview and worked damn hard to hide it, but they’d liked him, liked his samples, laughed at a few of his _bon mots_ , and a week later, he was sitting at a reasonably-sized cubicle next to a straight arrow named Steve Rogers whose blue eyes and very lickable body went to the top of the charts in Loki’s most pleasant of dreams.

“Lickable?” Thor had said after Loki’s first AM exultation. “Seriously?”

Loki had wrapped his arms tighter around the subway pole and grinned, bouncing on his heels as the train slowed into their stop. “Have you seen his arms, oh oblivious one? And his ass? Jesus fuck. How is a man that beautiful single?”

“He had a boyfriend,” Thor said. “I told you. Some rich guy who owns half of Midtown. But they broke up a while ago.”

“Why? What happened?”

Thor had swayed on his feet, shouldered his bag as the train’s doors opened. “I don’t know. He’s never said.”

Loki hurried after him. “And you’ve never asked?”

They’d pushed through the crowd on the platform and come out the other side before Thor answered. “That’s not how Steve works,” he’d said. “You must have noticed. He’s not a real big talker. Not exactly the _let me share my travails_   _with you_ kind.”

“Hmm,” Loki’d said, because if there was one thing he understood, it was boundaries, the walls one had to build between one’s self and the world. His own were legendary. He knew most of the world saw him as a sour if occasionally witty person; he was ok with that. He saved the best parts of himself for those who’d known him forever, like Thor--and people he wanted to fuck.

Which might be, he mused as they flashed their badges and headed for the elevator, precisely how they’d ended up in this mess.

“So,” he said on the way up, “why exactly do people think that we’re fucking? Did that happen to be on the sheet that Sam showed you?”

Thor shot him a grin. “This is really bothering you, isn’t it?”

“It’s not bothering. I wouldn’t say bothering. More like: color me intrigued. I don't get it.”

“Well,” Thor said, “think about it this way: we just took our break together.”

“So?” Loki watched the numbers impatiently. “We always do that.”

“And we’re coming back at the same time.”

The three web ads he had to write before five started looming up large. Fuck, why had he lollygagged so much this morning? “...since we left at the same time, yes. That’s usually how these things work.”

“And in three and a half hours, we’ll walk out together, too.”

“Jesus christ, we live together, Thor! It only makes sense that we would--” Loki stopped. Blinked. Looked back at his best friend of the last 15 years, the one person in the world that he trusted not to be an utter dick. “Oh shit.”

That smirk was back. “Exactly. You gotta wonder what took ‘em so long.”


End file.
